Some known portable concrete striking devices are of the type comprising a screed for striking a soft concrete surface, which includes concurrently flattening the concrete and levelling it. The screed is pulled along the concrete surface by means of handles attached to the screed. A vibration inducing device is also attached to the screed for inducing vibrations in the screed. A worker will pull the portable screed along the uneven surface of the fresh, soft concrete which has just been poured. The vibrating screed helps level the concrete to obtain an even surface before the concrete sets.
One of the advantageous characteristics of the concrete is that it has a rather good resistance to wear. However, excessive vibrations induced in the concrete can cause cement particles to rise towards the concrete upper surface, thus effectively reducing its resistance to wear. This is of course a highly undesirable side effect when striking a concrete surface with a vibrating screed.
Another problem with portable screeds relates to upstream excess concrete shovelling. Indeed, as the screed is pulled along the soft concrete surface to level it, concrete will accumulate unevenly to form mounds at variable locations upstream of the screed, forcing the removal of this excess concrete to avoid impeding the advance of the screed. This is problematic since in the case of portable screeds the worker pulling on the screed becomes incapable of pulling on the screed if there is too much concrete upstream of the screed. To avoid this problem, at least one other worker will cooperate with the worker pulling the portable striking device, this other worker shovelling the excess concrete upstream of the screed and especially at the variable locations along and near the screed where the concrete accumulates in larger mounds. These mounds are often partly created by the screed itself as the excess concrete which is not being struck will be pushed by the screed to form these mounds. The shovelling worker will move from one side to the other of the screed to address concrete accumulation where it exists near and upstream of the screed, including moving around the screed-pulling worker. This results in the shovelling worker often hindering the screed-pulling worker and forcing the screed-pulling worker to temporarily stop his otherwise preferably steady advance with the screed. Furthermore, the advance of the screed also needs to be temporarily stopped if the excess concrete volume is too important to allow the upstream excess concrete to be addressed. This is impractical.